#033: "How To Prepare A Business Plan That Guarantees Success"
The easiest way to start is with a loose leaf notebook, plenty of paper, pencils, pencil sharpener, and several erasers.
Once you get your mind "in gear" and begin thinking about your business plan, "10,000 thoughts and ideas per minute" will begin racing thru your mind...So, it's a good idea when you aren't actually working on your business plan, to carry a pocket notebook and jot down those business ideas as they come to you--ideas for sales promotion, recruiting distributors, and any other thoughts on how to operate and/or build your business.
Later, when you're actually working on your business plan, you can take out this "idea notebook" evaluate your ideas, rework them, refine them, and integrate them into the overall "big picture" of your business plan.
The best business plans for even the smallest businesses run 25 to 30 pages or more, so you'll need to "title" each page and arrange the different aspects of your business plan into "chapters." The format should pretty much run as follows:
- Title Page
- Statement of Purpose
- Table of Contents
- Business Description
- Market Analysis
- Competition
- Business Location
- Management
- Current Financial Records
- Explanation of Plans For Growth
- Projected Profit & Loss/Operating Figures
- Explanation of Financing for Growth
- Documentation
- Summary of Business & Outlook for The Future
- Listing of Business & personal References
This is a logical organization of the information every business plan should cover. I'll explain each of these chapters titles in greater detail...